People who have political power

Answer choices

1. A

   Weakens, if anything7% picked this

   Those who offer new ways of justifying current political power often reap the benefits of

   We never talked about "new ways of justifying current political power", but that sounds like it potentially belongs to the category of ethical ingenuity. A lot of ethical arguments are made in order to rationalize and tolerate the current power structure. The author is arguing that ethical inventiveness brings only pain, but this answer is speaking to a situation where it brought benefit to the innovator.

   7%
2. B

   Correct65% picked this

   Politically powerful people tend to reward those who they believe are useful to them and to punish those who

   Why this is right

   This connects language from the Premise to that of the Conclusion. We were looking for ideas like, "If politically powerful people think your new thing could extend/protect their power (i.e. your new thing would be useful to them), then it brings you benefit. If they consider it a threat, it brings you pain (i.e. punishment)." To think this answer is relevant, we have to accept that "extending / protecting the power of the powerful" would be something the powerful "believe is useful to them". And we have to accept that "punishing" people they consider a threat could match up with "brings pain to these people". Both of those feel like very safe, adjacent meanings.

   Skill tested: Strengthen · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   65%
3. C

   No Impact17% picked this

   Ethical inventiveness and technical ingenuity are never possessed by the

   The author doesn't care whether these two things are always separate, always together, or somewhere in between. I can say "Exercise usually brings benefits to those who engage in it, whereas excessive drinking brings only harm to those who have this behavior." That doesn't preclude the possibility of people who bring benefit to themselves while exercising each day and then bring harm to themselves each night by drinking too much.

   17%
4. D

   Weakens, if anything2% picked this

   New technologies are often used by people who strive to defeat those who currently

   We had a premise that said powerful people see new technologies usually as a means of extending / protecting their power. Meanwhile, this answer is saying that new technologies often are used by people trying to subvert the powerful. So this answer seems to undermine the author's premise.

   2%
5. E

   Too Weak9% picked this

   Many people who possess ethical inventiveness conceal their novel ethical arguments for fear of retribution

   This answer strengthens somewhat, because it adds plausibility to the claim that ethical ingenuity brings only pain to those who have it. But when we compare this to the correct answer, it loses on two levels: 1) The correct answer deals with both halves of the conclusion. This answer only deals with the 2nd half. 2) This answer is weaker in terms of strength of language. "Many" means something unspecific like "at least 5-10 people". The correct answer uses "tend to" which refers to "more than 50% of cases".

   9%